Situation At Nikola “Starting To Look Dire” As Company Puts Hiring Freeze In Place, Loses Key Executives: Electrek

Nikola shares are plunging late in the day on Tuesday after EV blog electrek put out a report claiming that the company has lost its “whole supply chain leadership” and that the company’s “situation looks dire”.

“Electrek has learned that the supply chain department is in shambles,” the report reads, noting that four of the company’s top supplier chain executives have left the company in the last few months. The report says that the following employees have left the company:

• Matthew Jenkins: Director of Supply Chain & Purchasing (Cab, Thermal, HMI & Controls, ADAS
• Mike Chaffins: Global head of Supply chain
• Mike Gallager: Director of Purchasing (Chassis, Powertrain, Indirect, CAPEX)

Rather than the executives leaving because the company wanted to shift to outside suppliers, the report claims they were “critical” to “Nikola’s shift to relying on companies like Proterra for battery packs, Bosch for fuel cell systems, and IVECO for manufacturing.”

Nikola CFO Kim Brady was responsible for the leadership leaving, the report says. 

The report also noted that the company has put a hiring freeze in place, stating that during the time the company was dealing with founder Trevor Milton’s indictment, “the controversies took away from the actual work that the company was trying to accomplish.”

The article also says that Nikola has given up on internally developed technologies and is now “highly dependent” on suppliers. 

Nikola still trades with an over $3 billion market cap. Its last 10-Q filing shows no revenues for the 3 months ended September 30, 2021. During that time, the company posted a $271.8 million loss from operations. 

Its founder, Trevor Milton, sold hundreds of millions of dollars in stock in 2021. 

Nikola is, of course, the company that famously pushed the Nikola One prototype down a hill and filmed a promotional video saying the truck was operational. In September, Milton voluntarily stepped down from his roles as executive chairman and a member of the company’s board after being charged with fraud in late July. He stands accused of three counts of fraud for lying about the operational capacity of the Nikola truck.